What's God Telling You?

At times when we read God's Word, something sticks out to us as if God is really wanting us to pay attention and follow what He's saying. But when that happens, do we look around to see if God is telling anyone else to do that?

Maybe its to stop doing something we've been doing that we realize does not reflect the glory of God. Or perhaps it is to start doing something, like worship, that we haven't really put our heart into.

But do we base whether we do it on whether those around us are or are not?

Today here is a reminder from the life of the prophet Ezekiel, who was sent to Babylon with a difficult task, talk to Israelis whom God was disciplining for not listening to him for many years.

Ezekiel 2:7 And you shall speak my words to them, whether they hear or refuse to hear, for they are a rebellious house. 8 But you, son of man, hear what I say to you."

Don't use other's obedience or lack of it as an excuse not to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit as you read his Word. It's just between you and Him!

Pastor Tom

Does God Like To Hurt People?

We read sometimes in the Bible about the wrath of God. We hear in the prophets how God is going to punish this nation and that. We see in the book of the Revelation the lake of fire and all the judgment of God being poured out.

We get the impression that God is angry and that in anger he strikes out against us - like he's just waiting to throw lightning bolts down on us puny humans as soon as we make one tiny little mistake.

If you have had that opinion, I want to share with you a small verse in a small book called Lamentations. You don't often hear verses from this book, penned by Jeremiah as he saw the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonian army. This happened because Israel decided they didn't want to remain faithful to their husband, Yahweh. I admit, its not a very "happy" book - thus the name Lamentations.

So check out this verse: 3:31 For the Lord will not cast off forever, but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love; for he does not willingly afflict or grieve the children of men."

God is angry at evil, and he'll do anything to get the evil out of us, even afflict us and bring us into times of difficulty, in order to shower us with his love and his life. God would go so far as to take his own anger against evil upon himself so that you never have to experience it.

He did it on a cross.

Pastor Tom

3:31 For the Lord will

Temporary Satisfaction

Jeremiah 44 has one of the clearest declarations of why Israel had gone after other Gods.

17But we will do everything that we have vowed, make offerings to the queen of heaven and pour out drink offerings to her, as we did, both we and our fathers, our kings and our officials, in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. For then we had plenty of food, and prospered, and saw no disaster. 18But since we left off making offerings to the queen of heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, we have lacked everything and have been consumed by the sword and by famine." 19And the women said, "When we made offerings to the queen of heaven and poured out drink offerings to her, was it without our husbands’ approval that we made cakes for her bearing her image and poured out drink offerings to her?"

Serving other gods is a very practical thing. They thought they needed something and they went after the source that gave it to them.

We do that today as well. We go after the god of money in order to put food on the table. We serve the god of lust in order to find intimacy that we need.

But it's a little like drinking salt water when you are thirsty. It slacks the thirst temporarily while killing the body permanently.

Our problem is one of perspective. We think that all there is is what is around us in our daily struggle. In reality there is a much bigger reality out there. It would be like making sure we avoid a small bush on fire and ignore the entire forest ablaze around us.

A faithful relationship with Yahweh might have brought discipline and trial with it, but that temporary difficulty would result in an eternal wealth beyond imagination. We want to satisfy our immediate desires without taking into consideration a bigger need, to be clean from evil. Only God offers that through Jesus Christ, and as he makes us into his image, sometimes he allows difficulty.

But know this, God will always take care of his own. Belonging to him might mean temporary need, but eternal satisfaction. Something to think about.

Pastor Tom

Your Life Shines

There's an interesting story in Jeremiah 35 about a small group of people that God tells Jeremiah to invite to a wine tasting.

2 "Go to the house of the Rechabites and speak with them and bring them to the house of the Lord, into one of the chambers; then offer them wine to drink."

Okay, so no big deal you say. Well, it turns out the Rechabites had taken a vow of sobriety for all of their generations. So now God tells Jeremiah to bring them into the temple and offer them something they have never had before.

Now, if you are a Rechabite, what are you thinking? Jeremiah never says "God tells you to drink." And they don't. They honor the conviction their forefather had.

God knew they wouldn't touch a drop and in verse 14 "The command that Jonadab the son of Rechab gave to his sons, to drink no wine, has been kept, and they drink none to this day, for they have obeyed their father's command. I have spoken to your persistently, but you have not listened to me."

So all those years that the Rechabites listened to their father and kept away from alcohol, was for an object lesson against a rebellious Israel who would not listen to their Father and keep away from idols.

Perhaps you have been going along in your life as a follower of Jesus. He has been working on your life, working his life into yours. You have found yourself changing as you enjoy a wonderful relationship with him. You don't do the things you used to. You think differently and act differently. But that seems to be about it. Maybe sometimes you wonder if there is any use to your life - any way God can actually use you.

Take a lesson from the Rechabites. They didn't know why they kept dry for generations. But God had a great use for their sobriety and he will have a great use for your life as well. Keep close to him and watch - you never know when that "wine tasting" invitation might come your way.

Pastor Tom

Hope in Despair

There's a great verse in Jeremiah 29 that a lot of people have memorized.

11 "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for wholeness and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope."

We recite this verse in times of difficulty, when things are just going south for us. And that's a good thing, for it is a wonderful promise from God.

But I thought it would be instructive to put a little context around when God said this through the prophet Jeremiah. It's in a letter Jeremiah sent to the exiles that God had sent from Israel to Babylon. He was trying to tell them to set down roots in Babylon, have kids, open businesses, and even pray for the welfare of the cities they were in.

The people were having a hard time doing that in part because other "prophets" told them that God would break the back of Babylon and return them to the land. In fact wasn't true at all. God was disciplining the people for their abandoning their relationship with him. At one point he calls their wound "incurable."

30:11 "I will discipline you in just measure, and I will by no means leave you unpunished."

God is telling his people to let the discipline happen and learn that only by relying on God can their "wound" be healed.

17 "For I will restore health to you, and your wounds I will heal, declares the Lord."

So when you find yourself in a tough jam, don't fight it, but ask God to reveal what he is doing in the situation, or at least just trust that he is working, that in him, and through a relationship with him, you can find hope and a future and healing.

Pastor Tom

My Heart is Good(?)

I don't know about you but I've heard this statement a lot lately: "inside, man is basically good." It's a nice sentiment. I'd like to believe it, actually. I don't like thinking badly about other people. I want to trust that others will have my best interest at heart and if given a choice between harm and good, we will choose good.

I wish it were so, but sadly, it's not. The trouble is, our own hearts fool us into believing it is so. Recent studies of the human mind show that it is a more powerful thing than we ever imagined. The mind actually is self justifying. When you do something, your own thoughts will convince you that it was the right thing to do. That's how people like Adolf Hitler could do the things he did and stay functioning.

Jeremiah the prophet knew this a long time ago. He wrote:

17:9 "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?"

Thanks to a decision made by Adam, we have all been infected with a sickness called disobedience. It separated us from God and began to spread as a cancer throughout our race.

The biggest problem is we don't know we are sick because our minds are "deceitful above all things."

How do we learn about the truth of our hearts? We go to an outside objective source. That's God, who created us. That's God's word, which he shared then verified through the prophets. That word tells us we are sick, and it gives the antidote: Jesus Christ - God Himself.

God becomes the cure for our sickness by taking on our sickness and killing it. Isn't that cool!?

Pastor Tom